Imagine yourself in a place you constantly want to escape from, but for some reasons you can’t, and at times you feel you could make some positive contributions to change things, but then it could just be a stone thrown into the sea -- unnoticed & unappreciated. Well that’s what my situation was like a few years ago until a finally got a ticket out of my city.
I was born in the city of Lagos in the western part of Nigeria, some twenty one years ago, but I’m originally from Akwa Ibom in southern Nigeria. My family is a very beautiful one. I have just a mum and a dad (was I supposed to have two?) and two older siblings a guy and a lady. After my primary education in Lagos, mum and dad had to relocate the entire family to Akwa Ibom. Life in Akwa Ibom was rather too slow-paced compared to Lagos which is the commercial hub of Nigeria, but despite this huge environmental difference I still managed to cope, and also get the best out of the environment. For example, it was during my stay in Akwa Ibom that I learnt to play the snare drums for the March band of my parents’ church’s boys brigade, and by the way mum was the brigadier commander. I also got to discover and explore different aspects of my personality like the artistic, social and spiritual aspects. Like when I joined the children’s choir and the church’s dance troupe which really helped to shape my social and spiritual life. I wasn’t the social kid who could easily make friends but these platforms created avenues for me to make some really cool friends which spiced up my childhood. I even had a childhood sweetheart.
At a very young age, I learnt the difference between rights and wrong, I wouldn’t call myself a very religious person but this strong knowledge of right and wrong inculcated in me by parents has really helped me understand and conquer my environment and thus relate with it in such a way that it would be beneficial to other humans.
While exploring my personality, I discovered that music always had the best of me amongst other passions that I cultivated, that is why I signed up for music and piano lessons in the church immediately after I completed my secondary education. Although, the environment and the equipments wasn’t really the best there could be, with dedication and hard work I managed to complete the class as the best student. I didn’t just stop there, I continued learning and rehearsing more playing techniques which is still going on till date.
The experience so far has been overwhelming and educating: currently I’m majoring on gospel, highlife, afrobeats and jazz. In subsequent posts I’ll talk more about my music career, the challenges, my achievements, my prospects and hopefully vlog about some music topics.
Meanwhile, as a kid I fell in love with my uncle’s anatomy textbook, I used to flip the pages just staring at the pictures of naked bodies, dissected body parts and as I grew I became curious of how the body works and how it stops working, what makes people sick and how they get well by just taking some pills. I was usually sad when anybody around me got sick. My curiosity led me to pursue a career in medicine. But because I wasn’t well informed on how to go about this, I applied two times into the university but was denied admission. I think it was fate. But because I wasn’t ready to give up on my passion to becoming a health practitioner just yet, I sought for other ways to serve and make positive impacts on people, health-wise. I opted for a career in prosthetics and orthotics technology which led me back to Lagos state, as the only institution that offers this course in my country is in Lagos. I was granted admission to study for a three year National diploma course in this institution which I completed 4 months ago.
An amputee patient with a prosthetic leg
As a multi-faceted person, the economic situation of a third-world country like mine brought out the in-depth entrepreneurial qualities in me. After trying out on many income-generating possibilities like fashion design, marketing and music scouting I finally discovered a niche where I could really soar and that was Food business. I currently operate a restaurant in the city of Lagos. I just started out, but the outcome has been very beneficial, forgetting to mention that I combined it with schooling. Although, to prevent previous mistakes in past businesses I sought out to get adequate business education, I had to force myself to attend some business classes and seminars which was very challenging, as some of these classes clashed with my academic classes and also greatly affected my musical development as I had to skip out on constant rehearsals. It wasn’t so bad because I implemented the things I learnt about business management & financial independence and it’s paying out.
The outlet
Logo for my food business
The three years in school had its stress, but I managed to complete my diploma as the best graduating student, and I’m hoping to raise enough funds to start my studies for a Higher National Diploma. I am currently working on some projects offline. I just started to make monthly savings from my food business in order to enable me provide efficient mobility solutions to underprivileged amputees, especially children in Nigeria.
I’m here to basically meet and connect with new people and hopefully make some few extra dollars to support my offline projects and also try my best to bring up some projects online to help in the development of this community. I’m also using this platform as an outlet to express myself and feed my passion which is to inspire others to fulfill their potentials, listen and talk about any topic and idea that could inspire others in the community on daily life experience especially in financial wealth, personal growth, and relationship with people.
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